Worldwide Interest

Feasibility studies of UCG are currently underway in the majority of countries with indigenous coal resources.

The UK concluded an extensive review (1999-2004) of the potential for UCG as a method of exploiting its large coal resources on land and offshore. China has a number of trials in progress and others are in various stages of planning in Australia, South Africa, India, UK and the US. Many other countries with large coal resources have a renewed interest in UCG.

Figure 2 suggests the current level of activity in these countries.

Figure 2 Current level of UCG Activity Worldwide

UK and Europe

European interest in UCG was rekindled in the 1990s with the completion of the European Field Trial in Spain, and a programme by the Department of Trade and Industry to study the feasibility of UCG in the UK in 2004. It concluded that UCG in conjunction with carbon capture and storage (UCG-CCS) has the potential to contribute to the UKs energy requirements, but questioned economic viability, environmental impact and planning permission.

Since 2004, the economic viability has now moved very much in favour of UCG over other fossil fuel conversion methods and concerns with security of European energy supplies is increasing. The DTI study has set the groundwork for industry to lead the development of UCG and UCG-CCS in the UK. It has also supported a feasibility study of the UCG-CCS under the Firth of Forth in Scotland.

A technical and economic investigation into UCG coupled with CO2 storage in the Forth Basin of the River Forth, Scotland has been completed recently by Heriot-Watt University with support from the UK DTI, Scottish Enterprise and Scottish & Southern Energy plc. The basin has extensive coal resources, the locations under investigation offer advantages of drilling onshore, to access seams located offshore within the tidal reaches of the River Forth.

The European Union has itself embarked on a carbon abatement technology strategy, which will strongly influence the next energy research framework FP7. Clean coal power generation through CCS and clean coal technologies (CCT) are the main platforms of the CCS programme.

There are indications from Eastern Members of the European Union e.g. Poland, Czech Republic, that UCG would be an attractive option for the extraction of coal in the Silesian Basin and representatives have advocated new studies.

United States

The Wyoming coal areas around Gillette are arguably the birthplace of modern UCG, as most  of the US trials during 1972-1989 were undertaken in that area. At the end of these trials, the many technical advances developed during the programme were considered technically proven and detailed design work for several commercial projects undertaken. There have been  recent moves towards coal gasification such as the FutureGen project plus growing concern over security of supply has rekindled US interest in UCG. The Wyoming Powder River Basin remains the centre of interest for a commercial UCG project in the US.

Asia

China has a pressing need to expand its energy markets to support its growing industrial base and increased requirements for energy. The Chinese Government sees UCG as a priority development both as a route to liquid hydrocarbon manufacturer and power production using combined cycle gas turbines. Trials of UCG at shallow depth have been underway since about 1985. In addition, one of the State oil and gas companies has proposed that a UCG field trial leading to commercial production should be undertaken within the concession area of the Liaohe oil field in Liaoning Province.

 In India a co-ordinated programme of UCG development has now been initiated, sponsored by the Government. The target for syngas utilisation includes power, nitrogenous fertilisers, petrochemical and liquid fuels.

South Africa

The Majuba coal field north of Johannesburg supplies a 4,200MW power plant but the field is severely faulted with volcanic intrusions making mining difficult. The coal resource is 1.2Btonnes and average depth of 300m makes it potentially suitable for UCG.

Eskom Ltd, the principle power company in South Africa, undertook a pre-feasibility UCG study of the prospect in 2003. This led to a planned 3 month UCG trial aimed at producing gas in October 2005. It is hoped the UCG plant will be up-rated to 1,200MW output and an IGCC plant constructed in parallel.